VALORANT Patch Notes 12:09: Huge Neon Nerfs and Shotgun Accuracy Overhaul Revealed

The latest balance update introduces significant shifts to the meta, primarily targeting Neon’s mobility and the aggressive utility of shotguns. These changes aim to reward intentional decision-making and defensive positioning while curbing high-speed “snowballing” tactics.

VALORANT Patch Notes 12:09: Neon Mobility and Resource Adjustments

Neon has received a substantial nerf to her aerial presence. Previously, players could maintain momentum by jumping while High Gear was active. Now, jumping during a sprint provides no speed bonus; Neon’s air speed will simply match standard melee movement. Furthermore, her resource management is now more punishing. Fuel will no longer regenerate upon securing a kill unless her Ultimate is active, though passive regeneration remains. To help opponents track her better, her slide VFX has been polished to clearly show her direction of travel.

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Comprehensive Shotgun Overhaul

Developers are pushing shotguns back toward their intended niche: holding tight angles and clearing close-range corners. To achieve this, accuracy while moving (running, walking, or jumping) has been heavily penalized across the board.

Rope Accuracy: Shooting from ropes is now significantly less viable, with standing spread increased by 10x and running spread jumping from $0.1$ to $3.0$.
Stance Changes: Crouch accuracy has been standardized at a 15% multiplier for all shotguns. This is a slight buff for the Bucky but a nerf for the Judge and Shorty.

Weapon-Specific Nerfs

Bucky: Damage in the 0–8m range has been reduced (Head: $40 \rightarrow 34$; Body: $20 \rightarrow 17$). Its spread during jumps and runs has also more than doubled.
Judge: Minimum spread is wider, and movement inaccuracy has been spiked to discourage aggressive rushing.
Shorty: The fire rate is slower ($3.33 \rightarrow 3.0$), and jump spread has increased from $1.25$ to $4$.

Agent Bug Fixes and Tweaks

Several agents received quality-of-life fixes:

Chamber: Headhunter ADS no longer obstructs the screen excessively.
Sage: A bug was fixed where Sage could waste a Heal Orb on herself while affected by Decay, even though she hadn’t truly lost health.
Vyse & Viper: Fixes were applied to Vyse’s wall audio triggers and nearsightedness interactions within Viper’s Pit.
Neon (PC): An exploit involving NVIDIA settings and her Fast Lane has been resolved, allowing her return to the character pool.

System and Performance Updates

For PC users, the addition of AMD Anti-Lag 2 support (requires drivers from March 9, 2026, or later) will help reduce input latency. Additionally, the Riot Text Evaluation system has been upgraded across 12 languages to better identify and penalize communication abuse.

Finally, developers are testing new MMR adjustments in non-competitive modes to ensure fairer matchmaking, with the intent to eventually port these improvements over to the ranked ladder.

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